Chapter 8

Practice for the play… was a disaster. It just seemed that nothing was going right. The poor teacher was driven nearly to tears, screaming about why people couldn't have spent the weekend to at least get the basis of their parts. They didn't need to memorize it, of course not, not yet, but they needed to know the simply personality of their character.

Tezuka had reduced himself to standing in as dark a corner as he could possibly find; where the teacher couldn't find him at once and start thinking about the origins of her problems. It seemed that Tezuka just couldn't fit in with the description of the King. Among the members of the stage crew, they had made a list of all the characters and their personalities. The King was apt to smile a lot, they found. Tezuka? He rarely smiled at all.

Then, there was Inui, who was taking the analytical part of his part as Count a tad bit too seriously. He had his green notebook in his hand, fully equipped with at least three pens lest either one of them runs out of ink. Currently, he was scribbling madly anything that he found ranging from trivial to highly important.

Oishi was in the center of the stage, trying to calm down an overly hyper Eiji. This resulted in Eiji grabbing his hand and bouncing around from person to person with the poor mother hen of Seigaku dragged behind him. Taka was poring over his script, mumbling about how he couldn't get this part and he couldn't understand that part. The main powerhouse was about to have a nervous breakdown when Fuji handed him a cane-like stick. Instantly, Taka had reverted to his "burning" mode, yelling, "This? It is nothing! I will get it all!"

And as for the tensai himself? He had opted to sit in the first row of seats with the stage crew members, claiming that it was a bit too rowdy for his taste up there. This resulted in him being forcefully dragged back onto the stage by an assistant teacher, while the main one called for them to try to rehearse once again.

"I feel sorry for sensei," one of the stage crew girls sighed. There was a round of nods. "And I also feel sorry for the princess. She doesn't seem to know what she's doing." They thought it was wise to not say that no one quite knew what they were doing.

A crash from one of the doorways that served as an entrance to the auditorium directed everyone's attention there. Asa was on the ground, a multitude of cardboard boxes and their contents strewn around her. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" she whined, rubbing her hip with one hand before she scrambled to put everything back into the boxes.

"Ijuuin-chan is clumsy," sighed the girl who was currently playing the role as princess. She gave a shake of her head, chocolate brown hair swinging over one shoulder. "Now, if I were asked by sensei to deliver the boxes of the smaller props, I would certainly not drop them."

"Mou… she's being a bit unreasonable, isn't she?" another stage crew person whispered to the person sitting next to her.

Asa hurried up the steps to the stage, sighing inwardly. "Gomenesai," she mumbled, setting her load down and rummaging through them before popping up with a headset. One of the more resourceful of the assistant teachers had spent the entire weekend poring over each main part, recording it onto a tape and getting a headset to go with it. Personally, Asa couldn't think of anyone having the patience to do all that.

Fuji took his set with a bemused expression on his face, slipping it over his ears and turning it on. "Impressive," he said after listened to the first few seconds of the recording. "What limitless patience! Sensei is impressive as always." The teacher just chuckled nervously. With Fuji, one never really knew if his statements were praise or silent death threats.

"My part is boring!" Eiji whined after he had slammed the headset on his head. He was sulking, sitting cross-legged on the floor. "All I do is act like a shadow!" Oishi sighed in defeat, trying his ultimate best to calm down his partner, who was not in the least bit happy about his minimal part.

Asa sighed. Indeed, the idea of the headsets was a bit… over the top. Not that she had much chance to muse over the matter, as she was sent scurrying across the stage with another box. Honestly… isn't this whole drama production thing a little over the top? she thought to herself, wandering towards the stairs that led off the stage. In fact, the whole cast of the stage crew were given boxes with miscellaneous junk and sent along on their way. "Ah… I can't do any more of this running around thing with large cardboard weights," she whined under her breath as she leaned against the wall. Said cardboard weight was sitting rather innocently on the ground at her feet, to which she gave it a sullen glare.

"I'll help, then."

Her head shot up in surprise to find Fuji standing opposite of her, usual smile present on his face. "Don't you have rehearsal going on?" she asked stupidly, gesturing vaguely down the hall. If anything, his smile widened to the point she worried if he was planning something dark in his mind.

"Saa… you're cruel, expecting us to practice during a break." He stepped forward, picking up the box and starting down the hall, leaving the girl no choice but to follow him. "About this afternoon…" he began, and she swore the temperature of the hallway got a few degrees colder.

"Oh, that," she said lamely, "I'm sorry about dragging you along. I probably should have asked you first." She lowered her head and padded after the silent boy. "But I thought that Kurumi would enjoy it…" She sighed as she trailed off. What was she trying to achieve, explaining to a brick wall in the form of Fuji? It was hopeless.

"Would you mind if I brought along some friends?" he asked suddenly. He stopped at the auditorium doors, and she opened them before filing down the aisle after him.

"Sure… why not? It'll be fun."

***

Fuji-kun's idea of fun must not be the same as anyone else's. Asa glanced around the co-play shop, crowded with its racks of clothes and the Seigaku Regulars that Fuji had dragged along, via blackmail or any other method Fuji could think of (most of these 'other' methods having some involvement with Inui Juice).

'We're all going to participate!' he had announced, after all of these methods, of course, so that was why the other boys were now searching for something that wouldn't totally shame them. Of course, Tezuka was excluded from this, being Tezuka, so Fuji had taken it upon himself to find the stoic captain a costume. Now, he popped out from behind a rack with a costume that looked like that of an army general or commander.

"How about this one?" he announced, his bright smile slightly bigger than usual. Tezuka simply glared at him, but was saved from answering when Kurumi came up, a sweet and innocent smile upon her face.

"Here!" she said, and shoved a costume in his face. It looked suspiciously like a prince's outfit. "Syusuke-onii-chan looks the best in a prince's outfit!" she said happily. Momo and Echizen snickered in the background and Fuji promptly sent them a glare. They shut up instantly.

Turning back to Kurumi, he pasted his smile back on. "Is that so?" he asked sweetly, taking the costume with only the faintest grimace. "Are you going to be the princess again, Kurumi-chan?"

She shook her head, although she looked quite happy. "Iie! This time I'm not going to do it. I'll be costume director!" Fuji sighed inwardly. This couldn't end well for him. "She'll do it!" Kurumi announced, and with a flourishing movement of her arm, turned around and pointed at her sister. "Asa-onee-chan! Wear this!" She scurried off to dump another costume onto her sister. Her protests were cut off as Kurumi shoved her into one of the dressing rooms. Fuji slipped quietly into another.

Just today, he thought to himself, slipping the top of the outfit over his white school shirt. I just need to endure about another hour of this. I can do it. Dressed in the hated prince attire, he stepped out, and a crown was promptly placed on his head by Eiji.

"Kurumi-chan said she forgot to add it with the other stuff she gave you," he said by way of explanation. A silly grin was splashed across his face. "And a prince is nothing without his crown!" he practically sang. Fuji sighed, his smile becoming more strained by the second. Less than an hour now. Less than an hour. He had to forcibly stop himself from staring at the clock for too long by pinching himself, which only worked for a few seconds before he was back to staring at the little contraption.

By now, Inui and Kaidoh had already experimented with the picture taking machines, going through all the borders and finally selecting a few (or all of them…). Momo dragged Seigaku's rookie into a booth and the two of them came out minutes later, Ryoma looking as if he had been scarred for life. There was probably a good chance of that, since the boy had never before done anything like this (who needed to when there was tennis?) and he had never seen so many girly things congregated in one small spot (the screen) at one time. This brought slight relief to Fuji's current dark mood. Perhaps he should have dragged him along the first time. And their costumes, too… most of them matched their personalities almost perfectly. Fuji had to say that Inui's scientist get-up quite suited him.

The only pair who seemed to actually enjoy taking the pictures (to a slight degree, of course) was Eiji and Oishi. When they left their booth, Eiji was practically glowing, going on about how he was going to show his family the pictures when they were out. Oishi was silent, agreeing only when he absolutely must, but also saying that it was a nice pastime, being able to spend time with good friends and take pictures with them. Fuji suddenly missed his camera. He'd have to swipe a few of each group's pictures now.

"Ne, one-chan! There's a booth open now!" Kurumi said to the tightly drawn curtains of one of the dressing rooms. Dark, incoherent mumblings came from the other side. "Did you say something?" Kurumi asked innocently, a pleasantly puzzled expression on her face.

"I vote I not do this," came the repeated reply. "It's embarrassing… this dress…" More incoherent mutters.

"It's not bad! I picked it because it was cute!" Kurumi protested. A groan from the other side was her only answer. The grade-schooler sighed, before opening the curtains with a snap of her wrists. "C'mon, onee-chan!" She smiled faintly at her sister, giving a clap of her hands. "It's perfect! Onee-chan needs to wear things like this more often.

Said sister blanched. "I'd rather not," she mumbled, and tried to retreat as far back as possible only for Kurumi to grab her wrist and ask, very loudly, "Ne, Syusuke-onii-chan, doesn't onee-chan look like a princess?" If there was ever a time that Asa wanted to smack her sister, now would have been that time.

Fuji glanced up from where he had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get Tezuka to take a few pictures with him. His reason to the captain: 'You've already put on the costume, why not take a few? Saa, it'll be fun!' "Ah…" he started, the rest of his sentence cut off when Eiji draped himself comically over his shoulders.

"This means Aa-chan should not be a member of stage crew, nya!" the redhead scolded the girl. All she could do was sigh, having given up on the idea of getting out of this… predicament of hers. Must several of these conversations go back to that horrid play?

"You look nice," Fuji finished. A devilish grin suddenly crossed his face and he abandoned his efforts to move Tezuka to guide her to a photo booth. "Let's see how this turns out. You can pick the frames." And, still talking, he closed the curtain to the booth. There were a few mumbled words, a hint of a small argument, and then silence, followed by a click.

Inside the booth, Asa's fingers were skimming the screen, a slight frown present as she browsed through the selection of available frames. Contrary to his statement, Fuji has picked the first one, and before she knew it a picture had been taken. She gave a faint shake of her head; next time she would have to pick a different kind of present for Kurumi. No doubt her sister thought this was all fun and nice, but her nerves couldn't take much more of this.

And this dress… the shop was certainly well-equipped with a variety of outfits. Such as this 19th Victorian style dress Kurumi had managed to unearth. The bottom was adorned with ribbons, while the top had frilled sleeves. Short sleeves, she had noted, and now one hand strayed to her arm and rubbed it in an attempt to warm it. It was actually chillier than she had thought before. "How about this one?" she asked, pointing to a simple blue border. Not that she gave him any time to answer, selecting it and listening to the monitor give a little 'beep' as it registered this.

"Don't you think that one was a little plain?" Fuji asked, his smiling eyes already searching for another frame. He simply chuckled when he heard her mumble that she was the one who was supposed to be picking the frames. "If it's too plain it isn't fun," he chided, selecting another.

"And I thought you despised these kind of shops," she replied dryly. He said nothing, and there was only a click as another picture was taken.

Five frames later, they left the booth. She had to blink momentarily in order to get used to the lighting, and Kurumi pounced on her, asking questions like: "Was it nice? What kind of frames did you pick?" and the like. These were answered with one word answers, such as: "Yes," and "Eight."

Back in her school uniform, she heaved yet another sigh. Kurumi had finally managed to get Tezuka off of his chair, using some method that she did not under any circumstance want to know of. Instead, she headed over to the counter to pay for all the stickers they got, coming back and handing each group their respective prize of the day. "Thank you for coming," she thanked each of the boys, in which she mostly got nods in return and then left. All except Fuji, who by this time always walked home with her. "Thank you for coming," she mumbled as she left the shop behind Kurumi. "I promise this will never happen again."

He chuckled lightly. "Is that so? It's good to hear." She gave a tiny nod of her head as they continued down the street.

***

Kurumi threw her school stuff into the first closet she found in her house and stormed upstairs. Hanging above the headboard of her bed was a framed photograph of her playing tennis, a picture her mother had taken during one of her competitions. Likewise, Narumi had a similar one hanging in her room.

On the wall directly opposite of her window, was a sheet of paper taped to the wall, with letters that she had carefully printed in markers to read: 'Memories.' She had spent one full afternoon positioning it so that the first rays of morning sun would always hit, hence she always slept with her shades open, so that any light available fell on it. There were only two things currently on that sheet of paper: a family photo her mother had taken (before Asa and her father had returned, when she was ten) and the sticker from the last time she had taken Fuji to the co-play shop.

"We'll need a new family picture," Kurumi observed, throwing the photo a glance as she reached up to stick two more stickers onto the paper. The first one of these two new additions was another of her and Fuji, the second was her sister with him.

Satisfied with their position, she stepped back to admire her handiwork. Sometimes she wondered if he would ever like her. As half a year past, her own initial crush had dwindled slightly.

But only slightly.

She still liked the older boy. She liked the way he was nice to her, spending time to abide with all her antics. Only someone with real patience could do that, she felt, and she liked boys who were the patient type. While his false smile sometimes irked her, it just made her wonder what his real smile looked like.

Heaving a sigh, she flopped backwards onto her bed. Maybe I should just go after someone in my class, she thought, throwing an arm over her eyes, shielding them from the late afternoon sunlight. It was reasonable, but there really was no one in her class quite like Fuji Syusuke.

I'm hopeless.

A knock on her door made her glance up. Narumi stood in the half-opened doorway, dark hair up in her usual ponytail. "Kurumi, would you like to go practice some tennis?" she asked.

Kurumi smiled, but declined the offer. "I'm tired," she explained, lifting one arm to gesture to her 'Memories' paper. "Onee-chan took me to the co-play shop with all of her friends. It was fun." She sat up, smile widening slightly. "You should have gone, too! There were several dresses that would have made you look really cute!"

Narumi frowned, stepping into her twin's messy room to sit next to her on the bed. "Are you alright, Kurumi?" she asked worriedly. "You never ramble like this unless you're…" she paused, a pout stealing across her face as she searched for the right word.

"I'm fine! Really!" Kurumi was quick to reassure, leaping up from the bed to put on a display that she was indeed fine. "C'mon! I'm starving! Let's get something to eat and watch a video!" Grabbing Narumi's hand, she stampeded out of her room and down the hallway. Asa just managed to dodge her siblings as they crashed into the kitchen.

"There're cookies on the counter," she offered, and Kurumi gave her a wave in answer. Shaking her head and smiling, she left the front hall. Kurumi's door was ajar, so she peeked inside. Her eyes almost instantly found the paper taped to the wall. Curious, she padded closer to better see it. Ah… Kurumi's favorite memories, she mused, eyes travelling from photo to stickers. They lingered on the stickers of Kurumi and Fuji, and another faint shake of her head was the result.

Likes him, doesn't she? She closed the door as she headed out, slipping into her own room. Seika greeted her with a purr and twined around her ankles. She bent down to stroke her cat. Ne, I wonder… what's it like to like someone? She opened her window and leaned forward, letting a breeze play with her bangs. Seika leaped up onto the sill next to her and settled down with a satisfied mew.

A small smile that nearly mirrored her cat flitted over her lips as one hand went to play absentmindedly with the fluffy, white ears. It must feel nice, she decided, closing her eyes with a soft sigh.